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Accountability, Nation and Society: the Role of Media in Remaking Nepal Kiran Bhandari, Dipak Bhattarai and James Deane

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Accountability, Nation and Society: the Role of Media in Remaking Nepal Kiran Bhandari, Dipak Bhattarai and James Deane Policy Briefing POLICY BRIEFING #17 SEPTEMBER 2016 Accountability, nation and society: the role of media in remaking Nepal Kiran Bhandari, Dipak Bhattarai and James Deane Sign up for our newsletter: www.bbcmediaaction.org ACCOUNTABILITY, NATION AND SOCIETY: THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN REMAKING NEPAL Contents Front cover People of different Executive summary 3 ethnic groups celebrate the Hindu Holi festival of Introduction The remaking of Nepal in the 21st century 5 colours. Nepal is home to more than 120 ethnicities and Part 1 Media and accountability: impunity, co-option and trust 7 100 languages and dialects as well as different religions. Media will be key to Part 2 Local media: serving communities or musclemen? 12 enabling a diverse society to forge a peaceful future. This Part 3 State, nation and society: the role of media in shaping the future of Nepal 15 image came second in the Culture and Tourism category in the 2016 IME-Global Part 4 The role of the international development community 19 IME Bank Nepal Photo Contest. SAMBRANDA BAJRACHARYA/ Part 5 Conclusion 20 PHOTOJOURNALIST CLUB NEPAL Appendix List of interviewees 21 Endnotes 22 2 BBC MEDIA ACTION POLICY BRIEFING #17 SEPTEMBER 2016 SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: WWW.BBCMEDIAACTION.ORG DEEPAK RATNA BAJRACHARYA/PHOTOJOURNALIST CLUB NEPAL CLUB BAJRACHARYA/PHOTOJOURNALIST RATNA DEEPAK Executive summary This policy briefing provides an overview of the issues country is recognised for having one of the most open Above A building facing Nepal’s media in the context of the country’s media systems in the region. Some 74% of Nepalis report collapses in Kathmandu current political and development challenges. Based that the media helps to hold government to account. during the April 2015 earthquake. Nepali on more than 25 interviews with leading members Despite these achievements, this briefing asks some politics and society of Nepal’s media, government, civil society and searching questions. Is media holding power-holders to are rebuilding after international development communities, the briefing account in the way a democratic nation might expect and appalling natural also draws on public opinion research carried out by disasters, centuries of does it have the freedom to do so? Is media providing BBC Media Action. authoritarian rule and the foundation for an informed citizenry capable of political and economic The media has played a vital role in the history of sustaining and strengthening the fragile democracy so crisis. The role of modern Nepal. During the time of the monarchy, and many Nepalis have sacrificed so much to build? Is the media is likely to be especially in the 1980s, newspapers constituted one media uniting society, properly reflecting the diversity crucial to that process. This image won photo of the few genuine checks on a ruling power that was and grievances of people across the country, while of the year in the 2016 otherwise unaccountable. During the decade-long providing the channels of dialogue that can enable IME-Global IME Bank Maoist insurrection in the late 1990s and early 2000s, individuals to understand each other? Or is media a Nepal Photo Contest. media provided an essential platform for public debate driver of conflict? through which democratic transition could ultimately The people interviewed for this study did not give emerge. Nepal’s unique and extensive community radio uniform responses to these questions. network was widely praised during the overthrow of the monarchy in 2006 for providing news and information For some, the mainstream media has become politicised, and, in its appeals for peace, for helping to prevent the corrupted and co-opted, neutered in its ability to hold situation from degenerating into greater violence. The government to account. Others argue that the media post-1990 and 2015 constitutions both guaranteed is still relatively free and manages to reflect a diversity freedom of expression and, despite the continued of opinion. But, they maintain, media freedom is under challenges inherent in protecting media freedom, the intensifying threat and needs better protection. BBC MEDIA ACTION POLICY BRIEFING #17 SEPTEMBER 2016 SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: WWW.BBCMEDIAACTION.ORG 3 ACCOUNTABILITY, NATION AND SOCIETY: THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN REMAKING NEPAL For some, Nepal’s famously extensive local community institutional strengthening of the media. They argue that and commercial FM radio network, with over 450 the best journalists rarely stay in a profession that pays a stations, provides a vital foundation for democratic fraction of what they can get working for a development debate and accountability, in the context of the nation’s organisation, and that the intellectual lifeblood of the increasingly decentralised politics. For others, local country is being drained as key opinion-makers work for radio has largely been captured by political, business, international, rather than national, players. Others argue ethnic, criminal or other factional interests, stoking that independent media is suffering a catastrophic market polarisation – and even hate – in an already politically failure and that international support will be essential divided society. if there is any hope of media serving the interests of the public, rather than state, political or commercial Some respondents believe that national broadcast interests. media, and especially the state broadcasters Radio Nepal and Nepal Television (NTV), are an analogue This briefing is written principally for the international irrelevance in a country where mobile phone ownership community that wants to understand the current reality (and with it internet access) is exploding and where of governance in Nepal and the role of media in it. The a new constitution envisages devolving most decision- briefing does not pretend to capture the full complexity making to the provincial sphere. For others, a genuinely of Nepali media, politics or society.1 Its role is to reflect, independent and revitalised national public service rather than resolve, these divergent perspectives. It does broadcaster, which could command trust across the not provide a blueprint for support to Nepali media. country, might provide an invaluable mechanism to help But this briefing does reach one fundamental conclusion: hold a fragmented and divided society together. the media of Nepal increasingly matters in shaping the For some, donors and international non-governmental culture, society and politics of a nation that deserves organisations (NGOs) have co-opted the airwaves with better. Any governance strategy that does not understand content that too often means much to their funders but media’s role, or prioritise it within future support, is little to their audiences, and have failed to invest in the likely to fail. A brief history of Nepal The country that is now Nepal emerged from constitutional monarchy in 1990. In February a series of smaller kingdoms ruled at different 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal launched times by Kings Gopal, Mahispal, Kirants, Lichhawi a bid to replace the parliamentary monarchy and Malla. After decades of rivalry between the with a democratic republic through a Maoist medieval kingdoms, modern Nepal was unified revolutionary strategy known as the “people’s by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small war” that ended in a decade-long civil war, killing principality of Gorkha, in the latter half of the 18th 13,000 Nepalis. In 2005, King Gyanendra dismissed century. Nepal lost more than a third of its territory the entire government and assumed full executive to the British India Company in the Anglo-Indian powers, declaring a “state of emergency”. In 2006, war of 1814–16. The Rana family took over power strikes and street protests by political parties from Shah and ruled for 104 years. (including the Maoists) forced the king to reinstate In 1950, the country started its transition to the parliament. democracy after a small band of intellectuals instigated a revolution against the Rana dynasty On 28 May 2008, the elected Constituent Assembly and formed the Nepali Congress Party (an earlier (CA) declared Nepal a Federal Democratic precursor was the Praja Parishad, founded in 1939 Republic, abolishing the 240-year-old monarchy. to lead a revolution against the Ranas). In 1960, After the failure to draft a constitution within an declaring parliamentary democracy a failure, King agreed deadline, the existing CA was dissolved and Mahendra carried out a royal coup and dismissed a new CA election was held. In May 2015, shortly the elected B.P. Koirala’s government, declaring after the major earthquakes that struck the country that a “party-less” Panchayat system would govern on 25 April and 12 May, the second CA passed Nepal. the new constitution with the required two-third After 30 years of active rule by the monarchy, the majority. Ethnic groups such as the Madhesh, Nepali Congress Party and the communist parties Tharus and some indigenous groups have protested joined together to overthrow the Panchayat vigorously that their concerns have not been system. This led to the creation of a multi-party addressed in the new constitution, which came into democratic system within the framework of a effect on 20 September 2015. 4 BBC MEDIA ACTION POLICY BRIEFING #17 SEPTEMBER 2016 SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: WWW.BBCMEDIAACTION.ORG INTRODUCTION The remaking of Nepal in the 21st century The 28 million people of Nepal can claim to be among With this political backdrop, this briefing examines the most resilient on the planet. They have needed the role of media at this crucial time in the country’s to be. The country is still emerging from decades of modern history. The briefing unfolds as follows: political unrest and conflict that ended in 2006. The Part 1 asks why a media system that is ostensibly multi-party democracy system created in 2008 after free, numerous and vibrant has proved unable to the overthrow of the monarchy is widely perceived hold authority to account in a country ranked as to have failed to improve the country’s governance.
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